After graduating from The Ohio State University College of Optometry in 1996, Dr. Braden E. Kail returned to his hometown of Waynesburg, Ohio to build his optometry practice. Dr. Kail began giving back to his profession by serving as a board member and President of the Ohio Optometric Association’s (OOA) Zone Three. Additionally serving his local community, he became an active member and past president of the local Lion’s Club, often providing free vision screenings at schools throughout the area.
In 1999, Dr. Kail was offered the opportunity to provide eye care for a school farther away in Honduras. This trip began Dr. Kail’s passion to provide free eye care and glasses for people in third world countries and resulted in the establishment of Cross Eyed Missions in 2000. Since then, Dr. Kail has led 18 mission trips to Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Haiti, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. His teams have seen 19,000 people and distributed 17,000 pairs of used eyeglasses with the help of local Lions Clubs. For these accomplishments he has been recognized with the Lion’s Club International President’s Award (2002), Capital University’s Young Alumni of the Year (2003), OOA’s Young Optometrist of the Year (2004), and Ohio State’s William Oxley Thompson Award (2005).
In addition, Dr. Kail has remained an active member of his community. He has served as President of the Waynesburg Business Association, a board member of Quad Ambulance, and is active at Newpointe Community Church. He has also been integral in the development of youth sports in the Sandy Valley Area. He established the Sandy Valley Little Dribbler’s program, teaching children basketball fundamentals and then co-founded the Press News Basketball League for boys and girls in 2006, providing youth basketball for children in grades 3-6. He also served on the Waynesburg Baseball Association and Sandy Valley Little League boards, coaching Little League Baseball from 2000-2008. He is currently the pitching coach at Sandy Valley High School.
Dr. Kail resides in Waynesburg with his wife, Suzanne, and four children: Jake, Luke, Elizabeth, and newly born Addison.